Bridgeport revival lures young professionals

Published 10:28 pm, Saturday, August 3, 2013

BRIDGEPORT -- Developer Phil Kuchma's new downtown complex was the 10th location newlyweds Justine and Reuben Cordeiro visited in their search for a permanent place to call their own.

It took all of 10 seconds to know it was the one.

"I knew right away," Justine said, as she lugged bags full of clothes and books into the downtown building last week. "I felt like everything else we looked at failed to compare."

The apartment features new appliances, a kitchen set apart from the bedroom by a short hall, walk-in closet and glass doors that open to let in cool air and a view of the downtown.

But the best feature was its proximity to the train station.

"My husband and I, neither of us want to have a car," Justine Cordeiro, 24, said, noting that she has managed without a driver's license her whole life and Reuben, 33, is a New York transplant who rarely uses his own.

The couple, who have been staying with Justine's parents in Easton since their wedding in February, depend on the train to get to work in Fairfield and Darien. They were the first tenants to move into the 12-apartment complex at 1208 Broad St. -- a former city-owned grassy hill next to the grand courtyard and staircase leading up to the Downtown Cabaret Theater.

The small complex is the latest addition to the growing downtown neighborhood, which has seen hundreds of residential units popping up in the city over the last five years. Interest in living downtown has not waned, but instead increased, since Kuchma opened his mixed-use complex at 323 Fairfield Ave. two years ago. That building remains 100 percent occupied.

Kuchma said less than two weeks after he began advertising the units, he had tenants lined up for seven of the new apartments.

"The market response has been tremendous," he said. His next residential project will be the construction of a 50-apartment building a few yards away from the Broad Street building, next to the Eisenhower Center on Golden Hill Street.

"Our enthusiasm (for downtown Bridgeport) is growing, not slipping at all," he said.

The new developments can't come soon enough for Clyde Ripka, owner of Ripka's Bridgeport Market. The grocery establishment, which contains a cafe, bakery and butcher shop, opened in a Main Street storefront of the historic Arcade building in June.

"It's slow to go," he said, of the business. "It's been quiet as far as any numbers go, as far as anticipation and as far as feedback. Every week it's increasing but not as much as we'd like."

But Ripka is not alone in his need for business outside downtown, Kuchma said.

"All of the businesses downtown still need more support than just the people here," he said.

Ripka said he is working with the business and downtown councils to spread the word about the market, but he expected business to grow as the community grew. And the community is slowly growing.

Robert Carlson, of Carlson Construction, has found success in renting his one- and two-bedroom apartments at 333 State St., which he converted from a derelict hulk into a brand-new mixed-use development with 43 apartments.

The building opened six months ago and is now about 70 percent occupied.

Monthly rents for the one- and two-bedroom units there range from $975 to $1,750. Apartments feature 9-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, floor-to-ceiling windows and washers and dryers in each unit.

The ground-floor retail space, meanwhile, will be fully occupied soon with the addition of a new business, called Curley's.

The restaurant will be a sister store to The Country Store in Westport, which has a full deli, bakery and does catering.

The next major residential development to be complete will likely be the renovation of the red-brick section behind the historic Mechanics and Farmers Bank building on Main Street, across from a revived McLevy Green.

The 30 one-bedroom apartments there will likely be completed in the first half of 2014, said Brandon Hall, principal of Forstone Capital.

Forstone has been working to renovate the old bank building, which it bought from the city several years ago. After leaving for Shelton in 2002, architectural firm Fletcher-Thompson Inc., founded in Bridgeport in 1910, will lease the former bank space and the ground floor of the connecting building when the project is complete next year.

Justine and Reuben Cordeiro said they feel like Bridgeport has a lot to offer, with its access to public transportation, diverse population and the market, library and parks within walking distance.

"We're very glad to be a part of the Bridgeport community," Reuben Cordeiro said. "We see great potential here. I feel like I'm part of the history of the redevelopment going on."